Durban dad 'gobsmacked' by texts allegedly between daughter, teacher
The father of a Durban learner who was allegedly in a relationship with her 33-year-old arts and culture teacher has described the shock they got when they read the texts on her phone, apparently from the teacher.
"I saw that this is a 33-year-old teacher and a 14-year-old child - my daughter. Wow, it was shocking! I scrolled up and up and up, and I couldn't believe that these chats were going on daily - and I couldn't believe the nature of it, " he told Newswatch.
The teacher has been suspended from the school in the Sydenham area and arrested for allegedly sending inappropriate pictures and videos to the 14-year-old school girl.
The girl's father says the first telltale sign for him was when the teacher called his daughter for her birthday.
The father says his daughter is convinced they are in love.
She told him: "It does not matter what you say because he loves me and after four years he is going to wait for me and he is going to be the man that I walk down the aisle with."
"I sat there gob-smacked. She said that with such passion and it was sad to see how she really believes it, she really believes it," he said in disbelief.
KZN Education officials visited the school on Friday morning and say they are investigating the matter.
Department HOD, Enoch Nzama says they are still gathering evidence.
"There must be preventative measures to make sure it doesn't happen again. The fact that there are those allegations means that we must begin to look for systems of control that can assist the department to prevent these occurrences," Nzama said.